you can ramp up or scale down projects almost at will wi temps, not so with FTE's
Posted on 06/01/2019 11:16:22 PM PDT by Cronos
...High-tech companies have long promoted the idea that they are egalitarian, idyllic workplaces. And Google, perhaps more than any other, has represented that image, with a reputation for enviable salaries and benefits and lavish perks.
But the company’s increasing reliance on temps and contractors has some Google employees wondering if management is undermining its carefully crafted culture. As of March, Google worked with roughly 121,000 temps and contractors around the world, compared with 102,000 full-time employees, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times.
Though they often work side by side with full-timers, Google temps are usually employed by outside agencies. They make less money, have different benefits plans and have no paid vacation time in the United States, according to more than a dozen current and former Google temp and contract workers, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements.
Better treatment for those workers was one of the demands made by organizers of a Google employee walkout last year to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints.
...The reliance on temporary help has generated more controversy inside Google than it has at other big tech outfits, but the practice is common in Silicon Valley. Contingent labor accounts for 40 to 50 percent of the workers at most technology firms, according to estimates by OnContracting, a site that helps people find tech contracting positions.
OnContracting estimates that a technology company can save $100,000 a year on average per American job by using a contractor instead of a full-time employee.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Add Nike.
And they brag about their corporate commitment to “Equality!”.
When I worked at Kroger it was the same way, a small number of permanent full timers with a huge number of temps. That was why I left. There was virtually no chance of ever getting full time status.
For some of us, contracting worked out better. The take-home pay, in my some 25 years of contract work was better than full-time salary. Didn't need the benefits, needed money for kids college and child support! My case was complicated, but it worked for me!
I don’t understand the big deal of this NYT story. The IT industry has been heavy with temp and contract workers since long before I got into it. We’re usually bigger on math than non-IT people, including in our personal lives. Often we’d rather have a contract position with higher pay but no benefits because we’re happy with the benefits our spouse has — no need for duplication of some benefits like insurance. And employer match for 401k is nice, but not as nice as if I got a higher salary and invested it how I want (as opposed to an employer 401k that might have limited mutual funds to choose from). And then there’s the fact that a lot of younger programmers like to job hop a lot, always looking for the next project.
Take heart, sheeple. Google agrees with your left wing politics and screws conservatives. Doesn’t that make up for no benefits? You don’t really need vacations do you?
Not just Google. If you work anywhere in IT, chances are there are more Indians in your shop than Americans. My office looks more like Bangalore every day. We’ve even started “celebrating” Indian holidays.
It is a way to attack the Big Tech firms with power and appear to be the hero trying to help the under-privileged contract workers.
you can ramp up or scale down projects almost at will wi temps, not so with FTE's
It isn’t always IT people. And I’ve seen non-IT people being way underpaid while doing the same job as a FTE.
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